WHAT: Neurosurgeon Keith L. Black, M.D., will receive a Pioneer in Medicine Award at the World Congress of the International Brain Mapping & Intraoperative Surgical Planning Society(IBMISPS).

WHEN: The award will be presented during the 8:30 a.m. session Friday, Aug. 28, at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

WHY: The award recognizes Black’s “excellence in research, discovery and education, andpioneering work on selective opening of the blood brain barrier and immunotherapy of brain cancers.”

WHO: Black is chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery and director of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He received the Jacob Javits award from the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council of the National Institutes of Health in 2000 for his ongoing blood-brain barrier research, which has dramatically increased the ability of cancer-fighting medications to reach brain tumors. He also led research and development of a dendritic cell vaccine that enables the immune system to recognize and target cells of the most aggressive brain tumors.

DETAILS: The 6th Annual World Congress for Brain Mapping and Image Guided Therapy takes place Aug. 26 through 29, 2009. Among others receiving awards will be Bob Woodruff, ABC news reporter and co-founder of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, who was injured while covering the Iraq war; Sgt. Maj. Colin R. Rich (retired), a highly decorated soldier who was injured in Afghanistan; Peter M. Black, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston; and Sen. John Kerry.